A technical problem presently exists in the area of reverse-use for mobile phones and mobile devices as they are currently used. Today, products/objects have their own interface or man-machine-interface (MMI). For example, a soft drink or other type vending machine today has an MMI wherein the machine displays its wares, prices, provides input devices for a person to input the required payments in order to obtain a desired product. If one has no change or bills on hand of the proper type the purchase cannot be made from the machine.
It is desirable to pay for the machines' offerings using one's mobile phone. It is further desirable that the vending machines' offerings and the price information for the purchase would appear on one's mobile phone's display, so that all one had to do would be to type in his/her secret PIN code to authenticate a transaction to purchase an item. The vending device would accept a signal to dispense the desired item and a central payment provider would record the transaction, provide the necessary signal to the machine to provide the product and submit a bill to the mobile phone user at month end.
With the emerging popularity of the Internet as a purchasing tool, the demand for handling electronic payments in a secure and easy way has grown enormously. Credit cards and online account verification may yet well suit the handling of medium-priced and expensive goods, but are not economic enough for use with very low value purchases. This is why over the last few years a variety of solutions for these so-called micropayments have appeared to handle amounts as low as the fraction of a cent. However, there is a technical problem at present in the development of effective, concrete and efficient systems which integrate micropayment systems with product devices and related mobile personal devices.
Cellphones or mobile phones as they are also called (hereinafter “mobile device”) have become ubiquitous, and initiatives such as Bluetooth™ are underway to embed tiny, inexpensive, short-range transceivers into the mobile devices that are available today, either directly or through an adapter device such as a PC Card. The radio operates on the globally-available unlicensed radio band, 2.45 GHz, and supports data speeds of up to 721 Kbps, as well as three voice channels. Bluetooth-enabled devices and adapters began to appear in 2000.
“Bluetooth” is a word used to refer to a technology, or to the Special Interest Group (SIG) formed in early 1998 by a group of computer and telecommunications industry leaders, including Intel™, IBM,™ Toshiba™, Ericsson™, and Nokia™. These companies together began developing a way for users to connect a wide range of mobile devices quickly and easily, without cables. To ensure that this technology is seamlessly implemented in a diverse range of devices, these leaders formed a special interest group to design a royalty-free, open specification technology, code named “Bluetooth.” The SIG has quickly gained membership from companies such as 3COM/Palm™, Axis Communication™, Compaq™, Dell™, Lucent Technologies UK Limited™, Motorola™, Qualcomm™, Xircom™ and is encouraging the involvement of all other companies interested in offering products taking advantage of a standardized, wireless means for connection. The specification for the Bluetooth technology is available on the SIG website at www.bluetooth.com and is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference.
The Bluetooth wireless technology is designed to revolutionize the personal connectivity market by providing freedom from wired connections. It is a specification for a small-form factor, low-cost radio solution providing links between mobile computers, mobile phones and other portable handheld devices, and connectivity to the internet. For example, at home, a phone functions as a portable phone (fixed line charge). When one is on the move, it functions as a mobile phone (cellular charge). And when the phone comes within range of another mobile phone with built-in Bluetooth wireless technology it functions as a walkie talkie (no telephony charge). It is envisioned that one can use their mobile computer to surf the Internet wherever they are, and have automatic synchronization of one's desktop, mobile computer, notebook (PC-PDA and PC-HPC) and the mobile phone. Early revisions of the specification has been released to members of the Bluetooth SIG. Version 1.0 was published Q2 1999. Version 2.0 are scheduled to be released in year 2001.
Additional efforts are underway to connect all types of devices to computer systems, and to make these devices callable by other systems users anywhere on the network. For example, Sun Microsystems JAVA™ and JINI™ technologies are aimed at embedding microprocessors in various devices which can, when connected to a network, provide information about the devices characteristics, how to communicate with it, etc. Bluetooth is a network transport protocol that could be used to allow attendee viewing devices to be connected to a JINI compatible system without being physically connected. JINI is described in more detail in the document titled “Jini™ Device Architecture Specification” which can be found at the Sun Microsystems web site www.sun.com/jini/whitepapers/ and which is incorporated fully herein by reference.
Alternative embodiments can include other plug-and-participate devices such as those provided by other network technologies complimentary to Bluetooth and JINI, such as Hewlett Packard's™ JetSend™ technology which is another example of a service protocol that allows devices to intelligently negotiate information exchange.
Other technologies like Motorola's™ Piano, which can be built on top of Bluetooth, specifies what sort of information they exchange and how they communicate. It and other operating systems, like Symbian Ltd.s™ Epoc32 for mobile devices, can support Bluetooth and JINI technology.
While these and other similar technologies will provide the embedded means for various products and services devices to be enabled to communicate, wirelessly and otherwise, there are no present mechanisms for using the technologies to extend the products MMI from the device itself to unknown nearby wireless devices automatically.
These is a need in the art for a system and method for a product device or service operation to extend its man-machine-interface to such nearby unknown communications devices in order to simplify the means of transacting exchanges of goods and services in an extended arena. Similarly, a practical, concrete and useful system for handling micropayments using such wireless mechanisms is needed.